The Fall River Commission on Disability convened on Wednesday, September 11th, 2024. The meeting commenced with a moment of silence in remembrance of September 11th, 2001. Following roll call, the minutes from the August 14th, 2024 meeting were unanimously approved. A significant portion of the meeting was dedicated to the election of officers, where Dennis Pauli was unanimously re-elected as Chair, Debbie Pico as Vice Chair, and Lisa Silva as Clerk. Updates on ADA compliance efforts were provided, including the city's ongoing pursuit of ADA Improvement Grants for projects such as accessibility improvements in the government and Veterans Centers. Chairman Pauli noted that the Director of City Operations, Al Vera (also referred to as Al Oliver), would meet with the commission's work group every four months to update them on these projects. Commissioner Robard raised a question about the required update frequency for the city's ADA transition plan, which Chairman Pauli committed to researching. Vice Chair Debbie Pico reported progress on developing new policies and procedures, while no updates were available for the disability parking enforcement program or outreach initiatives. The next meeting was scheduled for Wednesday, October 9th, and the commission unanimously voted to adjourn.
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okay this is the meeting of the Fall River Commission on disability for Wednesday um SE September 11th uh 2024 and I'm going to read the opening pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or
0:46unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible chairman yes before we begin this meeting can we have a moment of silence and Remembrance of September 11th 2001 you read my mind yes we can so we'll do a um we're going to take a moment of silence for 911 um 2021
1:32thank you um and I meant 2001 U so I I apologize for that um next is roll call chairman Dennis Pauli present Vice chairwoman Debbie Pico pres commissioner Dan robard president commissioner an O'Neal Souza president okay the next item is public input I will say it two more times just to make sure is there any public input is there any public input okay hearing none um the next is the approval for the minutes of the
2:27meeting of August 14th 24 motion to accept the minutes of August 2024 for the four of the disability commission okay uh do I hear a second second okay is are there any corrections discussion or anything okay I will entertain a roll call vote chairman Dennis Paul selli yes Vice chairwoman Debbie Pico yes commissioner Dan roard yes commissioner an O'Neil Souza yes okay that's unanimous next item is the election of
3:15officers um I do note that uh there's a commissioner that's absent so is it would it be um should we wait and should we table this till the next meeting or should we should we proceed chairman y we we have uh we have 90% of our Quorum I don't expect any changes in the election of offices so I move that we proceed with the election of offices as scheduled on today's agenda okay
3:48um okay is that is that okay with everyone else do we need to uh pull the commission to see I made a motion I'm gonna second I'm this is debie p I'm gonna second um commissioner vad motion that we just continue with on the agenda with the um election of officers okay I'm just going to just to be um just to be okay with all of this I'm just going to do a roll call Vote
4:23Yes chairman Dennis Pauli yes Vice chairwoman Deb Pacho yes commissioner Dan robard yes commissioner an O'Neil Souza yes okay I am going to uh relinquish the chair to Vice chair debie Pico to handle the election for the office of chair all right so mad Madam Vice chair yes nominations for the chair Madam Vice chair yes I'd like I'd like to nominate Dennis fi for chairman of the disability
5:05commission for the fourth coming year I'll second that motion commissioner Ann O'Neal soua All right so at this time is there any other nominations at the table for chair all right hearing none um can we have a is it a roll call at this point Ro yeah roll call yes okay chairman Dennis pelli yes Vice chairwoman debb Pico yes commissioner Dan robard yes commissioner an O'Neal Souza
5:44yes all right so that's unanimous Dennis congratulations on um your continued role as chair greatly appreciate the work that you do so thank you thank you um the next will elect the for the position of Vice chair Mr chairman yep go ahead I'd like to nominate Debbie FICO as Vice chair for the disability commission for the fourth coming year I'll second that motion commissioner Ann O'Neal
6:16Su okay um I will entertain a roll call vote chairman Dennis Pauli yes commissioner Alisa Silva Vice chairwoman de Cho I'm sorry okay um yes commissioner Dan robard yes commissioner an O'Neil Souza yes that's unanimous congratulations Vice chair Debbie Pico thank you thank you I couldn't do it without you so thank you it's really a group effort so thank everyone and finally the the election for the position of
7:00clerk Mr chairman I'd like to nominate Lisa Silva as the clerk of the for of a disability commission for the forthcoming year and she's currently in this role right now so again this is no change okay do I hear a second I'll second that motion all right um hearing no other nominations I'll entertain a roll call vote ch and Dennis Pauli yes Vice chairwoman Debbie Pico yes commissioner
7:35Dan robard yes commissioner Anon El Souza yes okay it's unanimous congratulations to Lisa um she asked me to keep her in the loop so I will certainly inform her excuse I'll certainly inform her after this meeting um next we next item we'll turn to is updates starting with Ada let me just um um before I before I do a brief up uh update I'd like to acknowledge that we have uh um attorney Gary Hoak Ada
8:22coordinator for the city of Fall River and ask if he has anything that he'd like to report to us uh at this time I do not have anything to report thank you okay um what I sent to all of you um were a couple of updates um you remember that in 20122 um we passed a resolution um that there would be some AAS on with the city council and that would namely be with
8:55the Ada work group um so from time to time um I'm asked by the chair of the city council commission committee on Health Human Services youth elderly Affairs and Veteran Affairs and I don't know if I'm missing any any groups in this committee but um this year it's being chaired by Laura Samson um what I shared with you was um two reports since the Ada Improvement Grant that um I believe Mr Al Oliver who's the
9:34director of City operations applied for in September of 2023 um so he reported to the city council committee on um that on on the work that they're doing under the current Ada Improvement Grant which involved um counters in the government center um I'm not I I was I always forget some of these things but the Veterans Center is another one what I shared with all of you was a PowerPoint presentation that he did in
10:11November and I also shared with you today a link to the recording of last night's meeting in which he just updated us on the projects that he's pursuing um I usually I usually I usually have them take the lead um on this because they're doing the all of the accessibility projects and um and for the and I know that we usually we we do support all the work that's being done in compliance with the
10:42Ada um here in the city I know that there's another there's going to be another year of ADA Improvement Grants I'm not sure when that's coming out um but I think that's good because it gives a number of municipalities a chance to um to go after these grants to really to make some accessibility improvements and I want to make clear that there is no limit on how many grants just because you get one one year
11:12it doesn't mean you should wait a year you can go after as many years as you want as many Improvement Grants as you want um as many projects as you feel needs funding and that's what the city's been doing um since our transition plan they did asked me for a copy of the transition plan and self assessment which I did provide to the city council committee and I provided to Al Al Vera
11:39because that's the document that's kind of the compass that they're using to make improvements on buildings and um parks and polling places um the work group has also asked that a transition plan of streets and sidewalks be undertaken um and I believe some of that was in the last round of ADA Improvement Grants and um I did get an assurance from um director Al ala that that he would meet
12:16he would be willing to meet with our work group at least every four months just to update us on how things are going so are there any questions about that um I just wanted to share those links and documents with you so that we're all kept in the loop here Mr chairman yep thank you very very briefly uh are we required or uh is the city required and the disability
12:45Commission on behalf of the city as as the representative uh to update the plan every so many years or uh I I know we're required to have a transition plan on file uh to apply and receive uh a lot of Grants uh I know I know the the uh the founding transition plan uh that you forwarded to Al Vera is now a number of years old yeah it's I need to ask Jeff D
13:22I need to ask Jeff dowan from Mod how often these plans have to be updated um because I'm not sure um the one the most recent one we did was 188 18 200 uh 2018 2019 it was completed by so that's the most recent we have so I can I can um I can get that answer for you for our next meeting that'd be great thank you I yield are there any other questions none at this
14:02time okay all right I will I will uh call on B which is policies from the rice chair Vice chair de Pico oh sorry Mr um I was muted but um okay at this time I don't have any updates we are working on a couple of um you know buttoning up a couple of policies and some procedures working with Mr pelli so hopefully by the next meeting I'll have some updates okay um Finance
14:38as there is no um there are no updates at this time on the disability parking enforcement program at this time um anything on Outreach I don't have anything on Outreach okay next item is old business is there any old
15:14business okay the next item is new business our next meeting is um will be Wednesday October the 9th um is there any other new business okay hearing none I will entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn do I hear a second second second debie Pico second okay we need a roll call vote chairman Dennis Paul S yes Vice chairwoman Debbie Pico yes commissioner Dan robard yes commissioner an O'Neil Souza
16:01yes okay this meeting is adjourned thank you very much thank you very much everyone a day thank